Magic Eights
by RikaRose
Summary: Pure fluff that explores what might have happened if there had been more to the trading off of entrances and the 'dirty dancing' scene that kicked off this ship.


Until he'd come to NXT and met Bayley, Finn never had a close female friend in the wrestling world with the exception of Becky, who he'd helped train back home. Wrestling had come a long way in the last few years, but it was still a very male dominated world, and only a few years ago he couldn't have imagined the female wrestlers being as much a part of the business as they were now. Finn had seen a handful of amazingly talented women take the wrestling world by storm and change the whole game, and since he had trained with and gotten to know the key players in the 'women's revolution' he was invested in their success and proud of all they'd accomplished. Among those key players was both Becky, the kid he'd helped train over a decade ago, and Bayley, the current NXT women's champion. Along with legacy Charlotte Flair, and natural talent Sasha Banks, they'd been dubbed the four horsewomen, a name they owed in part due to the Charlotte's famous father, but also because the four had set themselves apart proving that women's wrestling was just as important as the men's.

He knew that they'd barely scratched the surface of what the four women were capable of, especially together, and was surprised when he found out that they were splitting the four up leaving only Bayley behind as the other three were called to the main roster. He had to admit though, he definitely didn't mind that Bayley was the one that would be around longer, and if any of the four women was suited to lead the NXT women's division going forward, it was Bayley. She was ready for the leadership role that came with being the champion and head of the division.

Despite his history with Becky, it was Bayley who he had the most affinity with among the four women. When he didn't have to be the cool under pressure champ he was actually somewhat introverted, and he'd been known to be a bit of a goofball. She was warm, fun, and slightly geeky. Outside of the ring neither took themselves too seriously, inside the ring they were both dedicated and focused, pushing themselves and everyone around them too succeed. From the moment they'd met they'd clicked.

He'd been blown away with her talent In Brooklyn when her and Sasha had stolen the show and she'd finally claimed the championship. With her title reign beginning only six weeks after his and her obvious skill, he'd anticipated that they would be sharing a lot of media time for the foreseeable future, and so far he'd been correct. He'd thoroughly enjoyed getting to know her even better, finding that they had a lot in common besides being able to be silly together and having a lifelong passion for wrestling. They'd spent plenty of long car rides in effortless conversation, and he'd spent more non-work time with her than he had with any other female coworker in his entire career.

The only downside to seeing Bayley so much was that he'd developed a bit of a crush on her and he was having a lot of difficulty suppressing it. She was girl next door pretty, the kind that snuck up on you and then wouldn't let you go, and he couldn't get her infectious smile out of his head. It didn't help that she was a hugger both by name and by nature. Her frequent hugs gave him plenty of opportunity to feel how perfect she was, soft in all of the right places. She made his blood run hot without even trying.

But even if he'd been willing to break his normal policy of not dating co-workers, Bayley wasn't available. She'd had a boyfriend since long before they'd met, and the guy was smart enough to hang onto her. Finn knew he needed to find a way to ignore the attraction, but that was a lot easier said than done and he'd not had much success so far.

For awhile he was able to hide how he felt, but now it had gotten to the point where even a couple of his friends had noticed, especially after Bayley and Sasha followed up their amazing title match with an iron-woman match in the main event of the following takeover. He'd watched their match with rapt attention and felt immense pride when Bayley had won. His friend Enzo had seen something in his behavior that night that had clued him in, and his friend Sami had somehow figured it out just from the conversation they'd had on the phone. Sami was stuck back in Orlando, still recovering from shoulder surgery, and he'd brought it up when they'd talked after the match. He'd interrupted Finn when he'd been describing the match, and said,

"You know she's with..." but he didn't get to finish his sentence because Finn had cut him off and replied,

"Yeah I know."

"I'm just saying man. Of all of the women who could have caught your attention, and you pick the one who's not even remotely available."

"Look I know okay. I didn't 'pick' her, you can't always help who want. I'm not going to do anything stupid or try and interfere. I'm happy she's my friend, even if that makes life more difficult, and I know she'd not the kind of woman you could lure away from a committed relationship. That's one of the things I like best about her."

"You say that now, but how long can you take seeing her day in and day out, knowing you can't have her?"

"I've done okay so far, and I can't just make this disappear . I'll be her friend, and if I get lucky and he screws up, I'll be waiting on the sidelines. Otherwise, I'll just have to get over it, but that's not happening anytime soon." Sami had dropped the issue after that conversation, and hadn't mentioned anything since.

Enzo had been a little different, but then his friendship with Enzo was different. In theory they probably shouldn't even be friends, they were so unalike, but somehow they'd hit it off anyway. Enzo didn't have the kind of moral hangups that Sami did. He'd been all for helping Finn try to break them up, but in this case, as much as it sucked, he agreed more with Sami, and he'd declined the offer.

It had actually helped some to have friends who knew even if they never talked about it, and for the most part he'd managed to hide the attraction while maintaining a close friendship with Bayley. They'd both successfully defended their titles over the following months, which meant that they'd continued to be put together for various events and interviews, and this had made it extremely difficult for Finn to get any distance from his infatuation with her.

Then in January something happened that changed everything. He and Bayley were asked to sit down in a meeting where they were told that they would be doing a very lighthearted PG-style romance angle. One of the writers had noticed that the fans really liked to pair them off and they were going to capitalize on it. It wasn't going to be used for TV but they were asked to play it up a little for house shows and that they would post photos and might even film a few things for the website. They wanted them to keep it to sappy innocent flirting and to stay within what would be reasonable for Bayley's character. The idea sounded like absolute heaven and absolute torture at the same time.

They'd started off with laying it on thick between him and her when she did her shy hugger routine with him and he would play it up for the crowd. The crowds absolutely loved it. The social media guy sent him a few things to post on his Instagram to keep the buzz going. Then he'd got hurt and Bayley had an awesome idea at the house show that night and they'd let them run with it. He'd gotten to see Bayley come out in his jacket and do his entrance.

It had almost made getting hurt worth it, but then afterward he'd been stuck at the PC while everyone else was traveling. He'd missed Bayley and he'd spent a unhappy Valentine's Day wishing he could call her, but hesitating because of what day it was. Then he'd gotten a text from her asking how his ankle was doing, and he decided it was okay to call. They spent more than an hour on the phone, and it had made up for the rest of the bored, miserable day. He didn't ask why she was on the phone with him after nine pm on Valentine's Day instead of with her boyfriend, but it was the first time he wondered if that chance he'd been waiting on might actually be possible. He'd talked to her again the next day and he'd got to share the good news that he would be returning to traveling with them in a couple of days.

...

Bayley was pissed off at her boyfriend. Things had already been strained between them for over a month, and she'd been pretty upset about the whole situation until this morning when she'd seen the date and realized that it was the day after Valentine's Day. They were on the road and they'd been so busy she'd completely lost track of the days. She checked her phone and she remembered having face-timed with Sasha the morning before and talking to Finn last night, but she didn't have a single missed call, text or message from her boyfriend. Yeah, to be fair she hadn't called him either, but he wasn't traveling or working right now and she was.

Her relationship had been rocky ever since January when she she'd been asked to do a very tame romance angle with her friend Finn. The fans really seemed to like it and she didn't think it would be a problem, but boy was she wrong. Her boyfriend knew how the wrestling world worked and that it was all for show, but he'd flipped out. They'd been together a few years, and they'd had their ups and downs, but she'd never seen that side of him until recently. Even though the angle was 'G' movie appropriate Josh had been extremely jealous. Finn had never been anything but nice to him, but suddenly he couldn't stand Finn. He'd made snide comments and gotten mad every time they'd talked on the phone, and while he hadn't come out and said it, he'd implied that he wanted her to stop being friends with Finn completely.

She knew you sometimes had to make sacrifices for your partner, but she didn't feel this situation warranted such an extreme measure. Finn had been an very good friend to her over the last several months and she wasn't ready to give that up over petty jealousy.

After she'd had the idea to cheer Finn up by doing his entrance, her boyfriend had seen the pictures online and he'd flown off the handle. He'd accused her of cheating or at least wanting to cheat on him. She hadn't talked to him for a few days after that.

When she'd confessed everything that was going on to Carmella, her friend been pissed off that he would make that kind of accusation about her, but then Carmella had said,

"Sweetie I know you would never do anything like that, but I can see why he'd be jealous of Finn. You and Finn have a natural chemistry that's hard to miss and someone on the outside looking in would assume the two of you were in a relationship. Isn't that why they started the whole romance angle?"

"The fans liked it."

"Yeah because the two of you just have that spark, that's why they like it. Everyone can see it."

"Except me."

"Well you've had relationship blinders on, and Finn's been really respectful about boundaries."

"You mean he knows too?"

"Well Finn can be kind of an enigma sometimes, but if I had to put my money on it I would say he has a massive crush on you. I'm pretty sure he knows."

"No way. He's never said or done anything to hint at that," she replied incredulously. She couldn't wrap her mind around the idea.

"Well he won't. He's a good guy and knows you're taken, he's not going to interfere."

"I don't know if I can believe that."

"Well don't worry about it. Finn would never do anything while you have boyfriend, and I didn't mean to stress you out over it."

The conversation bothered her over the next couple of days until Finn returned, and then she convinced herself that Carmella was seeing things. Finn was a great friend, but he never gave any signs that he wanted anything more. She and Finn fell back into their easy friendship, which was a relief because things were not improving with her boyfriend and they hadn't had a conversation that didn't end in an argument for a over a month. She'd been getting really tired of dealing with the constant bickering, but it became a moot point at the end of February. They'd kept the romance story line going after Finn returned and when Finn noticed she was down he'd returned the favor she'd done him, and did her entrance for her. It had made her night, and for a little while distracted her from the ongoing problems. A week after he'd done her entrance they had a lot of fun reenacting the famous scene from dirty dancing Finn-and-Bayley style. It had been cheesy and cutesy and the crowd had been over the moon about it. Fan-made videos went viral. Unfortunately that had spelled the end of her relationship.

On a brief return home her boyfriend confronted her and he had given her an ultimatum. No only did he insist that she completely stop talking to Finn, he also wanted the story line to be dropped, and that if she couldn't make that happen he wanted her to promise to quit. She'd thought he was the man she'd been going to spend her life with, so it broke her heart to realize that as soon as he'd said that she'd known it was over. She couldn't quit, and she knew that if he truly loved her that he wouldn't have asked that of her. She'd cried buckets on Carmella's shoulder that night, and then had to turn around and get right back on the road.

...

Finn hated seeing Bayley unhappy. He'd been worried about her when she'd returned after a quick trip and she hadn't been herself. He'd bugged Carmella until she'd confessed that Bayley had broken up with her boyfriend. Finn had been elated which had then made him feel guilty because she was so miserable.

He tried to be a good friend to her, doing little things like randomly bringing her her favorite coffee and goofing off backstage trying to get her to smile, and she was really starting to bounce back until March started to wind down and Takeover approached. The stress had set her back, and then she'd lost the title. The whole arena had been in shock, and he'd wanted to go to her so bad but couldn't because his match was on right after hers. He'd been distracted that night, and it was a miracle he hadn't lost himself. As it was, he just barely survived. Then he'd had to endure a long line of people to get to the back, post-show speeches and his usual clean up time before he could seek her out.

When he'd found her she was sitting staring at the wall, completely silent. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him. She collapsed against him sobbing. He held her comforting her and just let her cry. They sat like that for what felt like hours and he felt completely helpless against her misery. After the tears stopped she continued to lay with her head on his chest completely silent. When she finally spoke her voice was rough,

"Thank you for being such a good friend Finn, I'm sorry I got your shirt all wet."

"It'll dry. Feel any better?"

"Yeah I do. I really appreciate all you've done for me recently. I don't know how I would have made it through the last month without you and Carmella."

"You're a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for." She'd smiled a watery smile at him and then gave him a hug. They had to get up because it was getting late, but Finn offered to keep her company if she needed it. She rode with him back to the hotel, and they stopped by his room so he could drop off his stuff then they went back to her room intending to watch movies. They had only been in her room a few minutes when Carmella had shown up with Cass bearing a bottle of tequila and two cases of beer.

"Alright girl you need a chance to let loose." she said as she walked into the door, hoisting a bag of lemons over her head, "Hi Finn," she'd said breezing past him, "Are you up for joining us in my quest to get Bayley shit-faced?"

"Carmella!" Bayley had sounded a little embarrassed. He thought it was cute.

"Bayley!" She said mocking Bayley's tone, "What girl? You need it, you've had a shitty month and you deserve it, right boys?"

Cass had automatically agreed with his girlfriend, and Finn found himself agreeing too after a look from Carmella. She was right though, Bayley did deserve a chance to let loose, and he'd never seen Bayley drunk so he was admittedly curious.

It wasn't long before he got to see her in all of her tipsy glory. She was giggly and more girly then he'd ever seen her, including flirting unashamedly with him, which he'd thoroughly enjoyed, boldly flirting back and trying to make her blush. After the first round of shots Carmella had pulled out a pack of cards and set up a circle of death. The game started out fairly innocent, but Carmella was playing devil's advocate, and when she got to make up a rule, she changed the rules for the eight cards. Typically you picked someone to drink with you for the rest of the round, but she made it so that if you drew an eight you had to kiss someone on the lips. She'd looked straight at him and had given him a secretive wink right before she'd declared the new rule, and he knew that she knew how he felt.

On the very next round, Bayley drew out the first eight and blushed bright red. Somehow in the few seconds since she'd pulled the card Carmella and Cass had become involved in kissing each other. Bayley looked at him like 'what do I do' before she shrugged a little, leaned over and planted her lips on his. In the process she lost her balance falling into his lap. He was too struck with the feel of her mouth on his to notice until she'd pulled back smiling tipsily at him. In the meantime Carmella had starting make catcalls, teasing them in a slightly obnoxious way and Bayley turned crimson again. To his surprise she elected to remain in his lap, but he wasn't going to complain. The game continued like normal until the third eight was pulled, by Bayley again. This time she didn't hesitate to put her lips to his, but by that point he'd been pushed to his limit. He was in love with her, and he'd almost given up on ever having her. She'd been sitting in his lap and flirting outrageously with him all night, and he just couldn't stay platonic anymore.

When her lips met his he immediately deepened the kiss. He'd half expected to get slapped for it, but she'd melted into him and for a little while he was in heaven. Her soft hair under his hands, her sweet lips, her tongue dancing with his, he could have stayed like that all night if it hadn't been for Carmella and Cass whistling and clapping at them. For a second he wanted to strangle them both. Bayley pulled away getting all shy though she still didn't move out of his lap, and at this point he knew she could feel his arousal.

The gods were smiling on him because he was the one who'd pulled the final eight, and he picked up where they'd left off earlier. This time they didn't get interrupted and he kissed her long and hard, pulling back only when it became necessary to breath. Once he realized that they hadn't been interrupted because they'd been abandoned by the other pair, he took her lips again. In the back of his mind he worried that she would change her mind when she was sober, and wanted to enjoy this moment in case he never got it again. He tried to memorize every sound she made, every hitch of her breath, every sigh.

When he finally pulled back, he rested his forehead against hers seeking out her gaze, which was surprisingly clear. She seemed a lot more sober than he'd orignially thought she was. After a few moments to catch her breath she asked,

"Is this real?"

"God I hope so."

"They were right."

"Huh?"

"Everyone tried to tell me. I didn't believe them. It's why Josh and I broke up."

"Why did you and Josh break up? You've never said."

"He thought I was cheating on him with you." For a moment Finn saw red, he swore,

"That son of a bitch! Are you serious? How could he ever believe you would do something like that?" Bayley looked at him her expression resigned,

"I didn't know him as well as I thought I did, so it shouldn't be a surprise that he didn't know me."

"But it was."

"Yeah. That was the hardest part I think. I'm not nearly as broken up over him not being around as I should be especially because of how long we were together, but coming to that realization was tough. I thought he was my best friend and he didn't know me at all."

"He's a fool sweetheart, I'm so sorry if I had anything to do with all of the misery you've had to go through."

"I'm not. Sorry that is. Yeah it's been hard, but I'm glad I learned the truth before it was too late."

"I told you you were stronger than you give yourself credit for. You're an amazing woman Bayley." She looked straight into his eyes running her hand along his jaw.

"Carmella thinks you're in love with me, is that true?" He felt his heart lodge in his throat at her question, but knew he had to tell her,

"Yeah. I am, I have been for along time."

"How did you do it? You've been such a good friend to me and for all you knew you would never get anything out of it."

"It's never been about what I get out of it. I can't imagine a world where I would have met you and not fallen in love. I knew it wasn't likely to ever come to anything, but I also can't imagine not being your friend. It was worth it, not matter what."

"You became so important to me so quickly and I knew I couldn't give you up. He wanted me to stop being friends with you and I refused. I'm not sure that he wasn't right in the long run, I do have feelings for you."

"No, Bayley, he should have known that no matter what kind of feelings existed you would never cheat on someone."

"But he was right that I felt a lot more for you than I willing to admit to myself."

"That doesn't make you a bad person. We can't help how we feel, it's how we choose to act on those feelings that matter. You would never have even thought about it while you were with him, and he should have know that. You gotta let me know what you want now though. I never expected anything to actually happen and I know we've been drinking, is this something you want or do you need me to pretend this never happened? If that's what you want I won't stop being your friend, whatever you need love."

"No I can't. What I feel for you, now that I'm not ignoring it, I can't just put that back in a box and pretend it never happened. I don't know if it's love yet, but it's way more than friendship. I know you've been incredibly patient while you waited on me to see what was right in front of me, but if you can give me a little more time I'm pretty sure it won't take much to get there."

"You can have as much time as you need, I'm not going anywhere."

...

After that night they'd mostly kept their relationship at the same level as it had been before. There were a few times when he hadn't been able to stop himself from kissing her and she hadn't protested, though it had always been in private. He was still anxiously awaiting a sign from her that she was ready for more than that. Happy to take what he had, which was way more than he'd thought he would ever get only a few months ago, he spent as much time with her as she would allow. Thankfully she seemed to enjoy his company too, and they were together quite frequently. Today they'd planned to meet up a the PC for work then they were going to grab dinner together after.

He grinned when he looked up to see Bayley coming through the door. She was being her usual bubbly self, greeting everyone, stopping for hugs with several of them. As spring had turned into summer he'd been happy to see Bayley recover her inner joy, the return of her hugs being one of the perks. He felt his stomach tighten a little in anticipation of receiving one of her hugs, and he was feeling a little irritated with how long it was taking her to get to him. He knew that she was almost universally like by the roster, and he couldn't blame them-it was hard not to like someone who was so friendly and unassuming, but it didn't help his impatience. When she finally reached him he didn't wait for her to give the hug, he pulled her into his arms and buried his face into her neck causing her to giggle.

"Hi Finn," she said still giggling.

"Hi Bayley," he replied, but he didn't let her go.

"Happy to see me today huh?" she said teasingly.

"I'm _always_ happy to see you Bayley," he replied and her expression softened.

"I know, I couldn't have asked for a better friend than you."

"Thanks, love," he said letting his voice drop low and leaning in so only she could here him. He expected her to pull back, but instead her eyes drifted closed and she leaned in with him. He wanted to kiss her, but they'd never done so in such a public place and he wasn't sure that she would welcome it. He started to pull away, but she stopped him. She looked up at him and said,

"You've been more patient than I had any right to ask you to be. You've given me everything I could possibly wish for without expecting anything in return, and you've loved me better than I thought was even possible. I couldn't fight it even if I wanted to. I'm yours Finn, all of me." The soft look in her eyes when she told him, the slight tremble in her voice, he knew that this was it, that moment he'd been waiting for. Uncaring of who would see them he pulled her lips to his kissing her with all of the love, the passion that he'd held in for months. He kept it briefer than he would have preferred because of where they were, and when he pulled back he drank in the look of love she gave him.

"God I love you woman."

"I love you too," she said, no hesitation in her voice, and he kissed her briefly one more time. They would have to go there separate ways for the day, but now he couldn't wait to get her alone this evening, and he couldn't help but grin after they'd parted and think that he really owed Carmella and that damn eight card.


End file.
